Jergens Mobile Home Park cleans up after storm

SULLIVAN, Mo. (KSDK) - Several people were injured in Sullivan, when the storm rolled through the area Wednesday night.

Danny Fallowfield broke two toes in the storm while protecting his daughter.

"Out of the blue, all of a sudden the trailer started shaking and I picked up my one year old, Avery, and by time I picked her up, we just got slung across the living room and into the couch and everything come flying on top of us," he said.

Fallowfield tells us the wind picked his mobile home up, moved it several feet off its foundation, blew the door open and then started sucking things out including the television.

"This is a 16 by 80 trailer. And it literally lifted it up and moved it. The frame is completely bent. It looks like it's just twisted. So there's absolutely no way of living in it," he said.

The wind sent another mobile home in the neighborhood rolling down a hill. Luckily it was vacant. We're told a Vietnam veteran lived in that home until as recently as Sunday.

People in the neighborhood say the storm was quick.

"It happened so fast I couldn't tell you what went on," said Hilda Pearman.

"I heard it start to rain and heard the wind pick up," added Stu Rauscher. "And I started to look out the window and about that time a friend of mine who was with me grabbed me and we ran behind the kitchen counter and the wind hit the house like nothing I've ever seen before."

Raucher lives at the front of the neighborhood formerly known as Jergens Mobile Home Park.

"I thought the place was going to lift up off the ground. Then when it settled down a little bit, I tried looking around to see what was out there. When I opened the front door, there was no front porch anymore," said Raucher.

A couple of miles away, the pole that held a billboard snapped in half and could be seen from Interstate 44. And part of the roof at First Baptist Church blew off. But the worst of the damage, was definitely the mobile home park.

"Last night we started off with one house off Montgomery Circle with a tree in it. And then right after that it turned into utter chaos over here at the trailer park where we're at now. We've got a lot of damage in here with trees down into trailers, the electricity is going to be off here at least for a little while. We're trying to get these people into some housing. Red Cross is here now to help them get along," said Sullivan Fire Protection District Chief Rich White.

The general sentiment is that it could have been much worse. Looking at all the damage that is all around the neighborhood, they say it's quite clear that this storm was serious and could have easily taken several lives. And they're just happy to be alive.